Faux Wooden Coasters

We really needed some coasters and I knew that I wanted to make some. I've seen a bunch of really cute ideas on Pinterest for coasters but I hadn't decided on a an idea yet. We were shopping at Home Depot one day and started looking at the Laminate Wood Samples...and then it came to me....I can use the samples (that I truly was interested in : ) as coasters!! Here's what I did:

1.  I traced around each wood sample on cheap craft felt. My felt squares were not perfect.

 2. I then just hot glued the felt to the backs of the wood samples, it's that easy!!

 

3. They look super classy! You could even get super fancy and round the corners or mod podge something onto them!

 Sorry for the iphone quality, but they still look cute : )

Light Saber Pretzels

We had a Star Wars day at work and I wanted to give everyone a themed treat. After I made these I saw a different tutorial on Pinterest for creating lightsaber Pretzels, I guess I'm not the only one who has thought of this : ) Besides the terrible iphone quality pictures, I think these turned out pretty cute.

1. I used the following items:

 

2. I combined equal parts powdered sugar and milk to created a thin frosting. 

(If I made this again, I would have  made the frosting a little bit thicker.)

3. I spread the frosting onto each pretzel.

 4. I then rolled each pretzel into the sprinkles.

 5. I then poured the sprinkles out and separated the red sprinkled from the other colors.

 6. I took a 4 inch X 3 inch aluminum foil strip and wrapped it around the base of the pretzel, and put a dab of frosting on the foil and placed a red sprinkle on the foil to represent the button on the lightsaber.

Goodwill Bench

I found a cute little bench at Goodwill for $6 and really liked the shape, but the blue color was faded and the bench had lots of marks on it. Not much to the explanation of this Re-do, because I did it the lazy Woman's way.  I wasn't too concerned with the texture that the paint would produce so I just spray painted over the blue color it was, with a Matte Black spray paint.

DIY Glass serving peices

I threw a baby shower for a dear friend of mine and I struggled trying to find serving pieces that fit my budget. I wanted quite a few pieces, so I knew I had to make something or find it at the dollar store. There are many ...many tutorials online and I found this one on Pinterest  . I ended up finding some similar dishes at the dollar store and making the following serving dishes:

 I took the pieces, matched them to one another and hot glued them together.

  I later spray painted them, and now I can spray paint them each time I need to use them for another party! Even though it dries on the glass, spray paint is not entirely safe to serve food directly on.
 I made sure to put either saran wrap or a pretty doily under the food, so that it didn't have direct contact with the spray paint.

Worthy thoughts

I taught a lesson on keeping your thoughts clean, the lesson is in Young Women's manual 1, Lesson 34: Worthy Thoughts. For this lesson, we talked a lot about the influences of Satan and how we are surrounded by the medias influences. I couldn't find a handout that I liked so I created my own. I did get the idea from somewhere online but I can't find the blog.
1. I bought 10 watches at the dollar store yay!
2. I created the handout in Photoshop and had them printed at Walmart
3. I then just used double stick tape on the watches

Ncounter

Phoenix Eats: We went hunting on Mill avenue in Tempe, AZ one afternoon and came across this cool looking place Ncounter. The sign is minimalistic and caught Davi's eye immediately. When we read on the door that it was a "healthy" and fresh style resturaunt, we almost walked away...just kidding....it made us want to try it more. We both both salad and soup combos, and had a REALLY hard time deciding what to order. I can't remember the name of the sandwich I ordered but I think any thing you order here will be healthy and delicious.

Kitchen 56

Phoenix eats: We came across Kitchen 56 completely by accident,  and were drawn in by how fun and classy it looks. We judge things by their covers sometimes and we could tell just from their cute Neon sign and string- light lit patio, that this place was gonna be good...right we were!

The building is a landmark and still has some of the original building elements throughout.

 

 This was my favorite, the Green Chile Macaroni, yummmm : )

I also had the Arcadia Salad which is hard to see here, but it had apples, cranberries, walnuts, 

bleu cheese, and all tossed in a citrus vinaigrette. Yummmm : )

Creating a Burlap Banner

I created a burlap banner for LDS Girls Camp this year. Our Ward was given the theme of Hardworking and the color of Orange, so we used Home Depot as inspiration for our decorations. I used the Home Depot catch phrase," You can do it, we can help," for this banner.

1. I bough 1 yard of burlap and it was more than enough. I cut the burlap into 5 inch by 6 inch rectangles. Make sure to put newspaper or another layer under the burlap or you will end up with paint on your counter top like me : )

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 2. I then Used my "Base Camp" cartridge and cut out 4.5 size letters. I popped the letters out and then used the outline of the letters as my stencils.

 3. I used a sponge brush and stamped white craft paint onto the burlap.

 4. Let the letters dry and apply a second coat on the letters if necessary.

5. Because this banner didn't need to be super durable, I just hot glued 2 inch ribbon onto the burlap letter blocks. I made mine double tiered and just used hot glue to glue the tiers together.

6. The embellishments are rolled burlap roses and rolled fabric roses. I hot glued those on as well.

Positive Pin Board

Our LDS Girls Camp theme this year was Pinterest. Everything was about cultivating the talents you've been given and becoming a better woman.  I created this board so that the girls could pin Positive thoughts or impressions that they felt through the week.  Our ward was given the color Orange and the theme Hardworking, so we used Home depot as our inspiration for decorations.

1. I started with an Orange Foam Board and a wood patterned contact paper , both from the dollar store!
2. I wrapped the edges of the Foam Board with the contact paper equally on all sides
3. I printed the Pinterest "P" logo, cut it out and then traced it onto the contact paper.
4. I then typed out the rest of the words
5. I then used a Home Depot like font and typed and printed each girls name and each leaders name
6. I arranged the names on the board and then hot glued a clothes-pin under each name
7. I then tied 1/2 inch ribbon into a knot and hot glued a "bow" onto each pin
8.I then hot glued the ribbons onto the back of the board
9. I created a pinwheel from scrapbook paper and then hot glued it to the ribbon

Unfortunately I didn't get to go to Girl's Camp but this was one of my contributions and I think it turned out cute!

Finding Joy Now

This lesson was one of my favorites this year. It is Young Women's Manual 1, lesson 6: Finding Joy Now.  It is one of the hardest things we learn to perfect in our lives, being happy with what we have and who we are right now.

The Object lesson:  I started the lesson with an object lesson about shoes. I showed the girls 10 shoes that were each very different. I explained that while each shoe is cute,  I also needed to tell them something about each shoe. I proceeded with a "persona insight" about each shoe:
Ex. The high heels are too high so they don't get worn often. The grey flats are falling apart on the inside. One of the pairs makes my feet smell. One of the pairs were far too expensive and I'm still paying them off (example of course: ) etc..
This object lesson was to help the girls understand that they shouldn't compare themselves to others and that everyone has something that they are working on and we will truly never know what someone else is going through. The girls really liked this and they said that it helped them understand that not everyone's perfect and we should focus our efforts on being their best self.

The Handout:

1. I created a small written handout in Photoshop  that says," Find the Joy Love the Shoes you're in"
2. Using Coordinating Scrapbook paper I made these adorable shoes. I used the shoe template found here. If I made these again, I would use a thicker paper so that the shoes aren't so delicate while taping them together. I also used double stick tape because I think using glue would be a nightmare.
3. I then hot glued 3 gems on the top of the toe as an embellishment

 

If I made these again, I would have printed the saying smaller and glued it onto the inside of the shoe.

Recipe for a Happy Home

I am a leader over the 12-13 year old girls at Church and I have the privilege of teaching them a lesson once a month (my favorite Sunday each month : ) The Handout was created for Young Women's Manual 1, Lesson 7: Homemaking. You can find a link to lesson 7 here.  My lesson handout was inspired by this blog post. I usually use sugardoodle.net for handout inspiration and then I try to make it my own.  ( Sorry for the poor picture quality, these were taken on my Iphone)

1. I created my own Recipe cards in Photoshop , printed and, glued them to some super fun paper.

 2. I bought  4- 4 packs of spoons. The packs are only 88 cents at Walmart.
3. I borrowed my mom's Metal alphabet stamp set and pounded the letters into the Wood. The wood is very soft and 2-3 taps should be plenty.

 4. I then punched a hole in the recipe cards and cut a 6 inch piece of Tulle and tied one card to each spoon.

 I contemplated whether or not to go over the letters on the spoons with permanent marker and my personal preference is to leave the spoons natural.  So sorry for the poor quality of these pictures, they are from my Iphone.

The Start

We need to record our life. We need to display our accomplishments as a Family. We need to write things down so that We will remember. We need to show our love and appreciation for those that We love and admire. We need to express our gratitude. We need to lend a helping hand. We need to cultivate art and beauty in this world. We need to generate new ideas and give encouragement to others.  
We need a blog and this is it!